More Union flags go up in Cookstown and Magherafelt

Shauna Corr

In answer to removal of an 'unauthorised' flag pole in Magherafelt a new Union flag has been attached to a lamppost near the Diamond roundabout at the centre of the row.

Facebook page 'proud to be a protestant banter' said a number of flags were put up last night in Cookstown and Magherafelt, along with a picture of one in the centre of Magherafelt.

UKIP hit out at the removal of the 'unauthorised' Union flag in Magherafelt, dubbing the act "another example of the undermining of the Britishness of Northern Ireland".

In a statement after contractors employed by Mid Ulster District Council used an angle grinder to remove a flag pole placed in the centre of the Diamond roundabout by a group of loyalists, the party said: "The removal of an original flagpole erected 65 years ago was the apparent occasion for the erection of an unauthorised flagpole, by way of protest and later removed by the local Council. The point is that the original symbol was removed.

"People are seeing everywhere these attempts to ‘disappear’ any symbols of Britishness.

"Unionists should not collude in the process whereby British identity is hidden behind a new ‘Northern Irish’ identity.

"There is too much talk referring to Northern Ireland as ‘our wee country.’ It is not our country. Our country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."